Wayfarers is proud to present
Ransom 2

Conceived and directed by George Ferrandi
Poem by A.W. Strouse
Images by Wayfarers members and artists around the world

RANSOM 2 is an Instagram-specific collaborative exhibition presented by Wayfarers in Brooklyn, NY. Conceived and directed by artist and founder of Wayfarers George Ferrandi, RANSOM 2 features the work of almost 400 artists operating from a wide range of skill levels, and hailing from an equally wide range of geographical locations. Shirking the unspoken rule against “pay-to-play" exhibitions, RANSOM 2 playfully declared itself a pyramid scheme, and "demanded" that each participating artist pay a fee in exchange for the assignment of one word from a story that didn’t yet exist. (The funds generated by RANSOM 2 enabled artist-run Wayfarers to keep its studios running and doors open for the last six months, after many members’ income had been affected by COVID.)

Once the committed number of participants was established at 417, A.W. Strouse, author of My Gay Middle Ages and Transfer Queen, wrote a poem with 417 words. Each participating artist was assigned one word from the poem that they could represent using the medium of their choosing, to be photographed for Instagram’s original square format, and emailed to Wayfarers. The images of the words—drawn in sand, carved in wood, scratched into leaves, arranged in flowers, scraped on skin—are assembled ransom note-style to spell out Strouse’s poem.

The poem was composed of three-word phrases so that it could be read fluidly as a series of scrollable passages on the Instagram feed. The captions that accompany the images offer a specific description of each artist’s process, and a general description of their lives during Covid––homeschooling, protesting, gardening, mourning. The captions function like pointillist dots culminating in yet another image—a collaborative portrait of this impossible and historical moment.

RANSOM 2 is the virtual sequel to RANSOM: A Demanding Collaboration, executed by Wayfarers and George Ferrandi in 2013. The original iteration was also a fundraiser for the space, and also employed an open call for artists to produce the words from an as yet unwritten story. Ferrandi wrote the story, and the 317 images and objects sent from artists around the world were exhibited in the gallery, with the walls functioning like a giant ransom note.

To participate in next year’s RANSOM project, join our mailing list.

RANSOM
by A.W. Strouse

Now nobody sentimentalizes
yesterday’s god-forsaken normality
insipid middle-class safety
requiring drone horror
slave-labor supply-chain work-camps

None anymore doubt
greenhouse-gas fossil-fuel Armageddon
grocery-bag oceanic pollution
opioid-dependent militarized ghettos
stupidity’s willful muros

Leafy ethically-grown kale
feeds gluttonous yoga-moms
helicoptering NIMBY downward-dog 
algorithmically ruthlessly outsourcing 
gentrified ersatz communities

Morally callous yuppies 
continue ordering take-out
downloading toxic status-seeking
lifelessly merging cyborgs 
stipulating contractual gratification

Unabated consumerist impulses 
unattached uncommitted fickle  
dissipate advert-fabricated needs
relentlessly buying disposing 
pre-packaged stale satisfaction

Fugue-state Republicans Democrats 
uselessly debate distractions
operating for-profit genocidal
prisons factories universities 
dispensing lilac hand-soap

Rage-machines flagrantly produce
grotesque multi-media spectacles
emotional-blackmailers cynically exploiting
mass-produced commodifiable fury
selling hysterical malaise 

Headlines change daily
newspapers constantly declare
whatever controversy du jour
inhibiting historical consciousness
stymying collective resistance

Dusty eighteenth-century calligraphy
memorializes broken promises 
liberty equality fraternity 
nasty-face powdered-wig deceit
payday-loan deferred dreams

Status-quo’s dreary tedium 
disallowing utopian vision
disincentivizes creative possibility 
instilling sitcom complacency 
reality-TV docudrama porno

Today everything changes
Today everything pauses
Today everything head-scratches
Today everything imagines
Today everything renews

because finally everyone 
together separate cooperatively
chooses goodness faithfully
daydreaming fantasizing praying 
caring trying explaining 

Optimistic sunrays outshine
foggy miasmic pestilences
Twilight supernovas expel  
tempestuous impotent tweetstorms
re-enlivening celestial landscapes 

None shall prefer
insipid workaday survival
dreary complacent comfort
exploitative war-mongering security-state
ignorant docile education

Seeking sweet peace
body soul undivided
self thou interpenetrating 
uniting socially-distanced souls
heralding intergalactic pot-lucks

Runaway circus children
flee spiritual wastelands
launching hopscotch surrealism 
puppetry burlesque mocking
obsolete unscrupulous 1%ers

Indigenous brilliant abuelitas
spank repentant bankers
lecturing kind collaboration
unpacking materialist fetishism
tortilla’s use-value triumphant

Unmediated unbridled passion
erupts volcanic joy
dispersing virtual sociality
realizing unpriced desires
flaring confetti yearning

8,000,000 broken Brooklyn
hearts Queens Manhattan 
Bronx Staten-Island reborn
revitalized unstoppable head-high
kicking screaming protesting

Cracked red-lined sidewalks
blossom dandelion clouds
flowering hunger-strike demands
abolishing big-box carcels
embracing cosmic siblinghood

Boycotting representation’s absence
self-publishing wild manifestos
solemnifying beatific poetry
chanting ecstatic quests
prophesying heavenly wisdom 

Wayfaring vagabond troubadours
harmonize courteous woodwinds 
accordion mariachi anthems
baroque chorus angels
subway hip-hop break-dancers

Showtime beat-boxers revolutionize 
world-weary hung-over oil-spills 
civilly-disobedient activist sweethearts 
unleash hidden energy 
quantum particle-accelerator magnetism

Hungry-ghosts healing radiate
blissful fractal mandalas 
sharing honey-pot pranayama
thorn-crowns rejoicing halos
enraptured empowered galvanizing

Subterranean hope germinates 
seedlings seeking sky
gentle earthy nourishment
jewel-encrusted all-embracing justice 
descending gentle dewfall

Compassion eclipses greed
nothing lasts forever
worthy unworthy alike
beyond mind’s distinction 
unfurling ancient friendship

Metaphysically wicked binaries
deny spiritual truth
Split partisan votes
obfuscate intrinsic value
abnegating profoundest meaning

Possibility however reigns 
answering eternally plural:
Why life matters? 
Love thy neighbor